Hirax, Shy Child, Dirty Projectors

1. In the 1980s, the California thrash band Hirax were but a footnote: among the legions of bands signed to Metal Blade who never got anywhere near as big as Metallica, they entered the metal-trivia lexicon by crossing paths with original 'tallica bassist Ron McGovney and employing a black frontman. As they've reminded us since getting back together in 2000, their lack of fame wasn't for lack of speed, density, or tough-ass-looking spiked wristbands. With Municipal Waste, Coliseum, and Defcon 4 Middle East, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge $12 617.864.EAST.

2. We don't have room for another dance-punk record in our trash bin and neither do you, so let's just agree not to call Shy Child anything of the sort. Anyway, Nate Smith and Pete Cafarella used up all that shit in their other band, and Shy Child's One with the Sun sticks to party jams: opener "The Noise Won't Stop" (stream) sounds like last summer's Nina Sky jawn transcribed for live drums and vintage synths, "Shinshine" jacks a chant from Franky Beverly and Maze, and in electro-house mode the Children fuse the endless horizons of the DFA with the low-tech bombast of DFA1979. They're at the Paradise Lounge, 969 Comm Ave, Boston 9 pm $8 617.562.8814.

3. The Civil War, the conquistadors' slaughter of the Aztecs, the homogenization of modern commercial radio: it's all Don Henley's fault. That's the sub-Cliffs Notes summary of Dirty Projectors' post-September 11, chamber-pop "glitch-opera" The Getty Address, though lone Projector Dave Longstreth probably wouldn't recognize it. Written for chorus, strings, and winds, atomized on a laptop, then sung like a folk song, Getty is a way-semiotic concept album that's (thankfully) far easier to enjoy than to get your head around. Longstreth presents it with accompanying (dirty?) video projections at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St, Brookline midnight 617.734.2501.